Austro-Hungarian Sauerkraut Goulash (Szegediner Gulasch) Recipe

Final fall, I took a press journey to Vienna sponsored by the Vienna tourism board. We spent days visiting wineries and close by wine taverns, eating places that ranged from superb eating locations to rustic wild sport inns, and the town’s UNESCO-recognized sausage stands. I ducked out one night time to verify I received a style of some correct kaiserschmarrn and crammed up on all kinds of traditional confections (skip the sachertorte; it is nearly universally disappointing). The day of my flight residence, although, I noticed I might missed one main class of Viennese meals: goulash.

I wandered the town till Gulasch & Soehne, a restaurant proper by my lodge, had a seat for me, then I ordered a tasting trio. Out got here three varieties: Vienna’s personal saftgulasch, wealthy with deeply browned onions; fiakergulasch, which is the onion sauce of the saftgulasch topped with a young weiner; and szegediner gulasch, full of pork and sauerkraut. I cherished all three, however the szegediner gulasch transported me with its interaction of fatty pork with salty-sour kraut, all of it glossed in a flippantly creamy paprika-stained sauce. In case you grew up consuming pork and kraut, as I did, because of my father’s Austro-German roots, this can be a combo that simply speaks to you. In case you did not develop up with that, it can in all probability nonetheless converse to you.

Szegediner gulasch is taken into account a Viennese and Austrian dish at present, but it surely comes from Hungary, the birthplace of all goulash, the place it is named székelygulyás.

It is a straightforward recipe to cook dinner, even when it takes just a little time for the whole lot to turn into tender and the flavors to coalesce. I will shortly run by means of the important thing technical steps in my model right here:

• Begin with bacon. Not all recipes do, however that smoky be aware simply goes so completely on this stew, and it supplies the fats for searing the pork and frying the onions later.
• Sear the pork shoulder in steaks. Searing and browning construct taste, however additionally they dry out the meat’s floor. By searing the pork in steaks, you develop taste whereas defending extra of the meat from the dehydrating warmth. After searing, you narrow it into cubes earlier than stewing. The result’s a flavorful, tender chunk.
• Add the kraut later. The sauerkkraut, if added to the pot initially of stewing, grows too gentle and mushy by serving time. Higher is to depart it apart till the stew is roughly midway by means of its 1 1/2 to 2-hour cooking time, at which level it can turn into silky and tender whereas nonetheless retaining some physique.
• Enrich with bitter cream; thicken with flour. The broth for this stew is flippantly creamy, because of the addition of bitter cream stirred in on the finish of cooking. However into that bitter cream, we first stir in just a little flour. Simmered for a couple of minutes, this combination gently thickens the broth much more, making certain the pork and strands of kraut and onion are coated in wealthy juices. You do not have to do the flour in case you do not feel prefer it, but it surely’s a pleasant final touch.

One other factor I like about this goulash? It is meaty and hearty, however you technically get a superb dose of greens in each chunk. That counts for one thing, proper?